Imaging practices impacted by COVID-19

Photo credit – Diagnostic and Interventional
Cardiology

PARCA eNews – March 24, 2020 – Because cardiovascular disease is the comorbidity that carries the highest death rate in COVID-19 patients, at about 10.5 percent, the use of cardiac imaging, places cardiovascular imagers in the front lines of COVID-19 patient care.

As cases of acute cardiovascular disease and cardiac complications caused by COVID-19 rose dramatically in early March and April, all the major cardiovascular imaging societies issued COVID-19 guidelines and lists of considerations for how to continue imaging operations safely under the threat of viral contamination for the duration of containment efforts.

Best practices guidelines were issued by medical societies and organizations including the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology ((ASNC), Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), and The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) and Society for Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT).

Despite variations in each of the guidelines, the list of precautions for all of them include:

• A screening checklist.
• Examples of how to triage patients for cardiology studies.
•  Employ social distancing.
• Rescheduling non-urgent visits.
• Rescheduling elective surgeries and procedures.
• Using separate spaces for patients with known or suspected COVID-19 to prevent spread.
• Ensuring supplies are available.
• Promoting use of telehealth.
• Screen staff, patients and visitors before they enter the department.
• Minimize non-essential visitors into the department.
• Record symptoms at the start of the shift.
• Record temperature daily as per local policies and standards.
• Use personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare personnel.
• If available, use PPE for patients (due to concern of asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19).
• Maintain strict hand hygiene.
• Maintain 6 feet distance in all patient/staff interactions when possible.
• Minimize crowding in workplace.
• Work remotely whenever feasible.
• Use of virtual conference tools for meetings and educational conferences.
• Rotating staff schedules for on-site and off-site work.
• Training in local infection control recommendation.

Dr Stephen Bloom, director of noninvasive cardiology (cardiac CT, nuclear cardiology and echocardiography) at Midwest Heart and Vascular Associates told Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology, (an online trade magazine) in late April that it is difficult to test everybody and there is a shortage of masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment (PPE), and the imaging equipment needs to be sanitized each time it is used, so it just is not possible to image all the patients who need imaging right now.


Source: Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology magazine